Key for locks.



I. C. FREUD.

KEY FOR LOOKS.

APPLIoATIoN FILED DBO. ze, 190s.

939,679'. Patented Nov. 9,1909.

2n y v um.. Mmmm keeper member 9 is PATENT FETCE.

ISADORE C. FREUD, OF DETROT, MICHIGAN.

KEY FOR LOCKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 9, 1909.

Application filed December 26, 1908. Serial No. 469,200.

To all whom it may concern;

Beit known that I, TsADoRn C. FREUD, a citizen of the United States, residing"at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful improvement in Keys for Locks, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this speciiication.

This invention relates to keys for locks; it has for its object an improved key having wards that may be changed in position, either for the purpose of changing the key contemporaneous with a complementary change in the members of the lock, or for the purpose of changing the wards in a key to temporarily make them useless for the purpose of unlocking the lock with which the key belongs.

A further object of the improvement is to provide a key on which the wards may be set on a scale which forms a part of the key, and thereby their upper position indicated to the user.

The principle embodied in this invention may be carried out in any one of several ways, and the way shown in the accompanying drawings is one adapted for a thin flat key, similar to the thin flat keys now in common use.

In the drawings Figure l, is a side elevation of the key. F ig. 2, is an edge elevation. Fig. 3, is a cross section along the line a-a of F ig. l; in this figure the several parts are exaggerated, or drawn on a scale larger than the actual article, and especially the thickness of the metal is exaggerated. Fig. t, shows a modified manner of regulating the position of the wards.

The body of the key is preferably made of two side members-2 and 3, which together form a box-like frame with a slot t along the top edge and the slot 5 along the bottom edge thereof. Between the side members 2 and 3 are inserted a ward or a number of wards 6, T and 8. A locking member or pivotally connected to one end of the side pieces 2, 3, and in close relation to the side members, and held in proper relation thereto by a ring or similar fastening device l0. This locking member or keeper member is corrugated or toothed along its upper edge, that edge which lies next adjacent to the side members 2 and 3, and in the corrugations or indentations engage corresponding corrugations or teeth of the ward members 6, 7 and 8.

The ward members may be moved along the body of the key between the side members, and are confined in the chamber between the side members by the engagement of shoulders l2 on the wards, with inturned flanges on the side members of the key. The wards project beyond that face of the side member which lies opposite the keeper member 9, and the projecting part is properly blers of the lock with which thekey is to be used. The upper edge of one of the side members 2 is provided with graduations of a scale adapted to indicate to the user the proper position of the wards when he arranges them for use. They may all or any one of them be disarranged from proper position for use by freeing the keeper member from them and sliding either one or all of them out of their proper position, and into any other position which they may assume. They may readily be readjusted atany time.

In the form shown in F ig. d, each of the wards 60, 70, 80 is provided with an individual regulating screw (il, 7l, 81 reaching to the handle portion of the key, by means of which the position of each along the body part may be regulated.

l. A key for use with locks, having in combination a body member, independent ward members having projecting lockengaging ends, slidable in either direction therealong, and means engaging lengthwise of the body member, adapted to engage said ward members, and to thereby hold them in desired relative position with respect to one another and to the body member, substantially as described.

2. A key for use with locks, having in combination a body member having an indicating scale along one of its lateral faces, movable ward members capable of movement therealong in either longitudinal direction, and means engaging said ward members for holding them in desired position therealong and with respect to one another, substantially'as described.

3. A key for use with locks, having in shaped and formed to engage with the tumcombination a body member, Ward members In testimony whereof, I sign this specifiudjustable therealong, a keeper member cation :in the presence of tWo Witnesses. adapted to hold said Ward members '1n ad- ISADORE C FREUD- just-ment by engagement with the rear por- 5 tion of each, pvotally connected to said body W'tnesses:

member and held in its Ward holding posi- CHARLES F. BURTON, tion, substantially as described. VIRGINIA C. SPRATT. 

